Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Commercial Vehicles (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/)

-   -   TATA Winger Test Drive (Edit: And buyer queries) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/32412-tata-winger-test-drive-edit-buyer-queries-4.html)

The Winger is an old and proven Renault Design. The car is basically a breadbox, but it can be fitted up for personal use and will make for an excellent long distance family tourer.

Let me put this straight;
Winger isn't a vehicle which you can use like an 800 or a City. It is designed to carry maximum people in a not so big wheel base from point A to point B with not so bad comfort.
It can be considered as a personal vehicle if one loves to go on lots of driving with whole town/family/friends on tow. The only gripe is there're not much sufficient creature comforts in it. But that can be solved by good aftermarket options. In the 10+1 seater version, all the seats are comfortable enough and are reclinable to some extent. This is better than the 14 seater versions which has not so comfortable seats. Those are fixed and some has to be fold twice and thrice to get access to the rear and believe me, that ain't that easy as it seems.

If a person is in the market looking for a cheaper diesel MUV then this one can be considered. The prices start as low as 5L+ or so!

We purchased the Winger with the sole intention of using it as the holiday vehicle which can be used in place of a Qualis and Innova travelling together. But then, the matters took a turn after some weeks of delivery as many in the family were unimpressed by it's looks and flimsy feel.
Some new projects in the company required a people mover and lo! One morning it reached them. I love the vehicle for some reason.

The flimsy feel is just in the skin. The thingy is built well. As steer said, one of our projects have some good unexpected offroading surfaces. With rains, it becomes a good cheesy pasta terrain. But the Winger hasn't complained till date nor had a big stomach upset.

Winger looks quite large and I wonder why Tata is not offering DiCOR engines. It comes fitted with skinny tyres that simply don't go with the vehicle's size and shape. Lack of power from the Sumo engine probably explains the choice of tyres. Tata will do well to instal 2.2 on it. Tempo Traveller which is its closest rival comes with a much bigger engine.

@Zak can you post some pictures of your vehicle?

So this means no icing on this piece of cake?

Winger is the right size for a caravan for two. The design is handsome, as usually all Tatas are. But the performance leaves you disappointed and the quality is from a third world, nay fourth world standard. I'll keep away from any Tata till they produce a decent vehicle!

Seems Maruti's EECo might give a tough competition to Small family winger customers. The maximum speed of the Winger is poor. To me it is not a worthy family car.

Dont know how many have seen this , but cant find this news anywhere in Tbhp

Tata has launched WINGER PLATINUM.

Link: 7 seater luxury cars, passenger and travel cars | Winger Platinum

Tata Motors introduces the all new Winger Platinum; a vehicle so spacious and comfortable, it will change the way you look at road travel. The Tata Winger Platinum has been designed to provide you with an enhanced on-road experience in every way. An impressive range of features and conveniences have been neatly packaged into this 7-seater. It’s time to say goodbye to uncomfortable and tiring road travel, for good.


Spacious, comfortable, stylish, fast, fuel efficient, low on maintenance, tough, the Tata Winger Platinum is everything you could possibly want a vehicle to be. That’s because it has been made keeping the specific needs of Indian customers in mind.

Office commuters, holidaying families, long distance travelers, everyone will get what they’re looking for from the Tata Winger Platinum – a car that will change the way you travel.

• Attractive decals, cutting-edge design and fresh styling ensure that arriving in the Tata Winger Platinum makes a bold style statement.
  
• The front design sports the signature Tata grill, a bold Tata logo, two wide headlamps and an imposing chrome lip on the front grill. The stylish wheel caps complement the decals.

• All Seven reclining captain seats having thick cushion with adequate thigh support, adjustable headrests and soft wide adjustable armrests.
  
• Maximum legroom in this segment. Plenty of legroom even in the very last row
  
• Full-fabric seat covers with Scotch Guard treatment
  
• 3-way adjustment of the driver’s seat – the driver can adjust the height of the seat and distance from the steering wheel, and also recline his seat just the way he wants it.

• Individual AC vents for all seats which further enhance the cabin comfort.
  
• Option of controlling the front and rear air conditioners independently.

• A 2-Din music system with USB port that can play music from any media.
  
• In addition, the vehicle is fitted with 4 in-built speakers and an LCD provision.

So they have made the same old TCIC engine BSIV compliant. Would have been good if they gave the option of DiCor as well. One of my friends has a taxi service and he was interested in it only if they had plonked in the DiCor. At the current price of around 6 lakhs it is a steal as compared to the Innova. But I believe, after plonking the DiCor still the Winger can be priced under 8 lakhs which will still be good value as compared to the Innova - I'm talking solely from the point of view of taxi purposes.

Specs (from Winger website)

Emission
Bharat StageBS III & BS IV Engine
Engine Capacity1948 cc Maximum Power90 HP @ 4300 RPM Maximum Torque190 Nm @ 2000-3000 RPM Power to Weight ratio35.30

Thats a good point . I am surprised to see the dimensions of the vehicle when compared to Innova as the length of the winger is smaller than the innova.

See below

For Innova :
Overall LxWxH
4580 mm x 1770 mm x 1755 mm

For Winger:
Overall LxWxH
4520 mm x 1940 mm x 2050 mm

And look at the third row seats on the Winger. It looks really comfortable. I have driven the winger when they launched, it wasnt like driving a big vehicle as the power steering made it much easier to drive.

We have one at our college, the Standard variant. Right from the day 1, I was inquisitive to know more about it. Spoke to all the three 3 drivers in our campus, and they were all of the opinion that its a very nice vehicle, and costs just 5 lacs! A no hassle-van. Returns a FE of around 10 kmpl. At times 14 people have traveled in it, and we have never felt fatigued or tired. We always prefer the Winger to the bus for the its(winger's) car/van like ride. We have climbed the hills of Matheran with 14 on-board. Usually the taxi operators use Maruti vans (since they are petrol driven and have rear wheel drive train) on this route, and I was quite surprised when the Winger reached the peak with 14 on-board without getting stuck!! I am eagerly waiting for a chance to TD the vehicle. :)

How's the GC in real roads? and Has anyone upgraded the tyres?

Platinum? Its more like Bronze to me.. Next gen would first need to be silver, then gold and then Platinum - a good 3 generations behind!

Its not cheap either - carwale.com tells me the onroad price in mumbai is 8.63L

Got dropped home in a Winger cab today, since my Scorpio is away for servicing. It was the 14 seater version (3+4+3+4). I sat in the 3rd row. We were a total of 5 occupants. We rode on the outer ring road for 10 kms, over good parts mostly, with a few broken patches inbetween.

I was pleasantly surprised by the surges of acceleration, so I felt the engine must be quite peppy. Fairly quiet on the inside as well.

The ride quality was good, a tad stiff, perhaps. Hardly any body roll, which is good, considering I was perched higher than the occupants of the MUVs that we crossed at signals !

Of course, my legs were brushing the front seat (I am a 6 footer), since this was the 14 seat version.

The Platinum version can be only better, I suppose.

Was driven around in a Tata Winger for about 70 kms very recently. The Winger is passenger friendly and one falls in love at first sight with the machine.The seats are ergonomic.Its more comfy than any other Tata bus (other than the newer breed of A.C. Buses they are making).The one I travelled in, had three seats behind the drivers seat (2+1). So the passenger near the exit door(the door is of the sliding Omni type and opens only to the left) has to exit himself for others to get out or get in. Much like the Standard Herald. There is no exit from the right. The front (driver's)row also has three seats, including the one at the centre.But its wiser to have only two seated in front, unless the passengers are too many.The seat (first row) just behind the driver's seat has to make some compromise with the legroom that abruptly ends due to some mechanicals being covered up by sheet metal.The other rows have better legroom.
The bus has a lower ground clearance that is quite OK for city driving and to balance its centre of gravity. Its car like and the traveller feels he's in a SUV or a car at the most. Maybe for rural areas the going will be tough.
As I said, the bus is quite comfortable by Tata bus standards, but its nothing so great to speak of. The suspensions need to be bettered to greater levels. This is an executive bus and cannot be left out of the factory with the old time tested and proven, Tata suspension designs.
The A.C. is a bore and with seven plus one (driver) passengers, it was not in a position to do its duty properly.There are A.C. vents on the dash, two on the top of the A pillar and the rear unit is the biggest of them all ! Its located on the roof just above the driver's seat row ends. There are vents and the joints marked in the picture had water leaks all of a sudden. Tata for us all :)!
The dash plastic is a turn off and quite cheap looking. The dash is quite basic and has the glove box located at the centre.
The exterior fit and finish is a tad better than the older Wingers, but nothing great to speak of ! The doors need muscle power to get closed- especially the sliding rear door needs a grrreat push to close and especially if there is a trim lady over there to do the job, the driver may say "bannd nahi hua deviji !" (meaning the door ain't closed).The drive is quite OK as the Winger could do 70-80kmph with ease on the expressway with low NVH and overtake many sleeker cars.It was never short of power to do its duty. I liked the running footboard as it was well located and the design is of a detached kind-detached from the body. Dirt accumulating on its can be washed away hence.
Overall, its a great effort by Tata but needs to be bettered towards a greater perfection.

Spotted a couple of new wingers in the Ambulance version getting delivered for the 108 ambulance service near the Hosur road EC tool booth. The vehicles spotted were the high roof version and fully kitted ready to start service after registeration. Couldn't take the pics unfortunately.

With this it seems like Wingers are getting more popular by the day as ambulances and is the only other fully built unit that can pose a decent competition to the best seller Traveller if we do not count other minibus options such as SML, Eicher and Globus smaller sized variants.